Railroad signaling systems, including railroad crossing signals positioned adjacent to the intersection of railroads and roadways, and signaling systems positioned adjacent to railroads, are used for various functions. For example, railroad crossing signals are typically aligned with the roadway intersecting a railroad, and serve to warn drivers of automobiles and pedestrians of an oncoming train. Railroad crossing signals may be positioned along various vertical, horizontal and diagonal bars of a railroad signaling system, and typically flash on and off with a reddish color. As another example, signaling systems are typically aligned with a railroad, and serve to warn a locomotive operator of an upcoming condition, such as no authorization to proceed, or restricted authorization to proceed, for example. Typical signaling systems include green, yellow and red colors indicative of respective safe and unsafe conditions.
Railroad signaling systems, including railroad crossing signals and signaling systems, depend on various factors for their effectiveness. One such factor includes proper alignment. For example, a railroad crossing signal may become misaligned and not align with the roadway intersecting the railroad, thereby failing to provide the necessary warning to drivers and pedestrians of an upcoming train and creating a safety hazard. Such misalignment of a railroad crossing signal may arise from one of several causes, such as being struck by a passing train, being struck by a passing vehicle such as a truck, harsh weather and wind, or vandalism. Additionally, the signaling systems are equally vulnerable to such misalignment, thereby failing to provide a necessary warning to a locomotive operator on an upcoming locomotive, or similar unsafe condition.
Currently, the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) enact regulations to ensure that each railroad crossing signal and signaling system are properly aligned within an acceptable and safe range. Additionally, FRA regulations require that a maintenance worker regularly travels to railroad crossing signals and signaling systems, and manually checks each railroad signal for proper alignment. In some cases, the railroad signaling systems are extremely remote, and thus the accumulating high cost and inefficiency of such regular manual alignment checks is extensive.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous, both in terms of cost and time efficiency, to provide a system for automatically sensing misalignment of railroad signaling systems, without the need for such regular manual alignment checks.